What is mental health? While it is an increasingly important and oft-discussed topic, the nature of mental health remains unclear.
In
The Minds We Want, John T. Maier argues that mental health is best defined as psychological well-being, and that the standards for psychological well-being are subjective. Since people have vastly different wants and values, mental health differs greatly from person to person---a monk and a parent of young children have radically different inner lives, yet they may both have mental health. The question of whether a person is mentally healthy depends on what kind of mind that person wants or values.
These arguments have meaningful implications for clinical practice and policy. The mental health professions should not be understood primarily in terms of the treatment of mental disorders, but rather in terms of assisting individuals in pursuing their own psychological well-being, as they themselves see it. In the same way, the aim of mental health policy is not primarily to reduce the incidence of certain mental disorders, but rather to provide individuals with resources for pursuing their own psychological well-being, whatever it might be. In this sense, the project of mental health policy converges with the more general project of political justice.
The arguments of
The Minds We Want are philosophical, but they draw on an extensive empirical literature in psychology, sociology, public health, and cognate fields, as well as the author's own experience as a psychotherapist for people with psychosis. It is addressed to anyone concerned with the question of what mental health is and why it matters.
